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Sustainable Energy Management Benchmark at Wastewater Treatment Plant

Author

Listed:
  • Andrey Kiselev

    (Department of Environmental Economics, Ural Federal University, 620002 Ekaterinburg, Russia)

  • Elena Magaril

    (Department of Environmental Economics, Ural Federal University, 620002 Ekaterinburg, Russia)

  • Deborah Panepinto

    (Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italy)

  • Elena Cristina Rada

    (Department of Theoretical and Applied Science, University of Insubria, Via G.B. Vico, 46, 21100 Varese, Italy)

  • Marco Ravina

    (Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italy)

  • Maria Chiara Zanetti

    (Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italy)

Abstract

Urban wastewater effluents bring large amounts of nutrients, organic matter, and organic microcontaminants into freshwater ecosystems. Ensuring the quality of wastewater treatment (WWT) is one of the main challenges facing the management of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, achievement of high-quality standards leads towards significant energy consumption: usually the more intensive WWT process requires additional energies. Energy efficiency at WWTP is actual mainstream on the current sustainable development agenda. The WWTP processes and methods can be considered from the standpoint of material and energy flows according to circular economy paradigm, which offers great possibilities to reuse waste originating from WWT in order to receive renewable energy. The correlation between energy and quality issues to evaluate WWTP efficiency is of a great scientific and practical interest. The main goal of the paper is to check the dependency between these two main issues in WWTP management—WWT quality and energy efficiency—and to determine possible limits of such relation. The municipal sewerage system of Ekaterinburg, Russia was studied within this paper. The total length of centralized sewerage system in Ekaterinburg is over 1500 km of pipes within two main sewerage basins: northern and southern. The methodological framework for the current research consisted of three steps: (i) WWT quality evaluation, (ii) energy efficiency evaluation, and (iii) WWTP Quality/Energy (Q/E) efficiency dependency matrix. For the purpose of research, authors investigated the 2015–2018 period. The results showed that the outputs correlate with the technical conditions of WWTPs and the implementation of the best available techniques (BATs): most of the northern WWTP values are referred to the green zone (good rank), while the southern WWTP values are situated generally in the orange zone (unsatisfactory rank). The proposed methodological approach for Q/E dependency of WWT process creates a strong but simple tool for managers to evaluate the current success of the operation of WWTP and progress towards circular economy practices implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrey Kiselev & Elena Magaril & Deborah Panepinto & Elena Cristina Rada & Marco Ravina & Maria Chiara Zanetti, 2021. "Sustainable Energy Management Benchmark at Wastewater Treatment Plant," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-11, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12885-:d:684440
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Francesca Valenti & Attilio Toscano, 2021. "A GIS-Based Model to Assess the Potential of Wastewater Treatment Plants for Enhancing Bioenergy Production within the Context of the Water–Energy Nexus," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Huang, Bao-Cheng & He, Chuan-Shu & Fan, Nian-Si & Jin, Ren-Cun & Yu, Han-Qing, 2020. "Envisaging wastewater-to-energy practices for sustainable urban water pollution control: Current achievements and future prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
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